The iPad-only newspaper has already instituted widespread layoffs, axing 30 percent of its staff over the summer, as it struggled to sign up subscribers. Some of its 100 remaining employees will be reassigned to The New York Post and to other News Corp. properties, a spokesman told TheWrap. He said it was too early to estimate how much of the staff would be retained.

"From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation," Rupert Murdoch said in a statement. "Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties."

When it launched in 2011, The Daily was viewed as an important experiment in convincing readers to pay for access to digital content. But its celebrity-heavy approach to newsgathering never caught fire. The paper kept most details of its subscriber numbers under wraps, but did say in January that it had attracted 100,000 paid subscribers.

The decision to pull the plug on The Daily comes as News Corp. is preparing to split itself into two separate, publicly traded companies -- one comprised of its television and film brands, the other devoted to its publishing and educational assets. The publishing company will continue to be known as News Corp. and will be headed by Dow Jones editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Robert Thomson. The television and film company will be christened Fox Group and will be overseen by Chase Carey. Murdoch will be chairman of both companies.